By Stephen "Breadman" Edwards

The Daily Bread Mailbag is back, as Stephen "Breadman" Edwards tackles questions on Alexander Povetkin, Adrien Broner vs. Shawn Porter, David Lemieux vs. Hassan N'Dam, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Amir Khan and more.

I wrote you in 2010 (I had to search my history/archives) asking: "Who do you view as the best heavy, besides the Klitchko brothers (meaning who would you favor to be the heavyweight king if K's retire today)? I would go with Povetkin (beats the rest but might lose to Peter)"

Would you agree with that assessment for the given period? He's been taking on the best available opponents, and the word is Bryant Jennings is a possibility. Although Jennings looked better against Wlad, I still favor Povetkin.

Povetkin is the solid number 2 after Wlad, however, the best heavy today might be Anthony Joshua. Even with so few fights, I think he has a realistic chance to beat Wlad. Wilder and Fury somehow don't impress me.

What's your take?

I'm looking forward to June 20 cards. Could you give your preliminary breakdown on Porter vs Broner and Lemieux vs N'Dam? I think Porter will outperform Maidana,... I'm really stumped on Lemiex vs N'Dam. The Ward fight is also somewhat interesting, to see how the layoff affected him.

Amarbayasgalan, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Bread’s Response: Maybe for that period but not sure about right now. I view Povetkin vs Jennings as a 50/50 fight. Also Joseph Parker and Anthony Joshua are on the horizon.

I’m impressed with Wilder. His victory over Stiverne was impressive. Wilder will be better because of it.

I think Andre Ward will look like a million bucks in his return. He’s a pressure cooker.

Right now I say Lemieux will beat N'dam. I think it will look like Canelo vs Lara. Lemieux will fight in spurts and those spurts will be enough because he is the A side and Ndam will give up too much ground.

Porter vs Broner is the fight. If Broner can keep Porter off of him and turn it into a boxing match then he will win. Porter does not have good defensive reflexes. He’s not hard to hit. But he makes up for it with his brute strength and aggression. When he’s working well he keeps you on the defensive and overwhelms you. I like what I saw in Broner in his last fight. He boxed a discipline fight…

So in this match up you have the more talented Broner vs the harder working more disciplined Porter. They say hard work beats talent if talent don’t work hard. But what if talent works hard, who wins then. I really don’t know.

Look for Broner to land lots of right hands. Porter rises up when he’s about to attack and he’s vulnerable to a right hand. He tips off his aggression. Brook literally won their fight by waiting on that single shot all night. Then look for Porter to rush in and swarm Broner. His punches won’t be as clean and eye catching because he’s not as accurate as Broner. He also moves as he’s punching which pulls him off of the target. But he’s going to try to drown Broner out and push him to ropes. Broner can not be lazy. He wasn’t lazy against Molina but Molina does not bring it like Shawn Porter does. Porter fights with a sense of urgency which is a good thing.

The one thing I don’t like about Broner is his workrate has gone down in the past when he’s been put under pressure. If your work rate goes down, your defensive awareness has to go up. This fight is very intriguing. The more I type the more I can envision both fighters winning. I will give you my pick next week.

I’m also interested at how Porter will handle the catchweight. I hate to even bring it up because I don’t want a built in excuse. But Porter is an extremely dense fighter. He was all muscle as a 165lb amateur. I know he makes 147 but I assume it’s not easy. To be forced to cut down another 2 or 3lbs will be stressful on his body. Porter also cuts easy and when you lose large sums of weight you are more susceptible to cuts because your skin lacks fluid. When you try to put that weight back on in one day lots of times you overeat just to feel normal. Broner is an underrated body puncher….Right now if you twist my arm, after weighing in all variables 55/45 in Broner’s favor.

Hey Bread,

I think the addition of John David Jackson to the Algieri team was a great move. Even though he lost the fight he was very much improved. If Jackson tightens up Algieri’s defense more Algieri can be a force at 140 and 147lbs.

Khan has to be a bit worried about what his future holds, he won’t beat Mayweather but he’ll get an unusually large payday for losing – if Mayweather chooses him.

If he faces Kell Brook he’ll lose badly and Brook will become the face of British boxing, relegating him to a lower status and this is what Khan is trying to avoid.  Facing Brook isn’t a good fight for Khan at this time – maybe never.

If Khan faces Thurman he’s in big trouble cause ‘One Time’ will walk him down and finish him.  Cotto would punish Khan! In short Khan doesn’t have a lot of fight options that will end with his hand being raised. Here’s a kicker for you, if Khan decides to leave Virgil Hunter and there’s rumors about this, John David Jackson would be a good replacement. 

Cotto is NEVER going to fight GGG! Cotto’s talking, Roach’s talking, but that fight is never going to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cotto struggles with Geale who’s a very experienced middleweight. What’s going to hurt Geale is the 157lb catch-weight seeing that he normally struggles to even make 160lbs. Cotto’s going to fight Canelo next and if he beats him he’s going to HOPE that Floyd goes for 50-0 and that he gets the call, after that fight Cotto will retire.

I see what you’re saying about Joshua, but I was terribly wrong regarding Deontay Wilder. I thought Wilder was a ‘hype job’ until he fought Stiverne. Yeah Stiverne went into that fight injured but he was able to land a few big shots on Wilder’s chin and Wilder didn’t wilt. Let’s see what Wilder does against Eric Molina who’s really a stay busy opponent. After that Wilder will have to face an Arreola or Stiverne type fighter or maybe Jennings, on his way to a title fight. Joshua/Wilder will be the BIG heavyweight fight in a couple of years from now.

Bread’s Response: I agree about John David Jackson and Chris Algieri. If he can become more defensively responsible coming forward he will be a problem. I also think his promoters have to match him in a couple of winnable fights. Mid major promoters have to have “special” fighters in this era like say a Sergey Kovalev. Because they have to take tough fight after tough fight at the top level. Chris Algieri and Ruslan Provodnikov are very good but they are not special. That’s why they have been losing as much as they have been winning lately. Kovalev is special that’s why he doesn’t lose. Algieri needs a “good Pick” as we call it in the gym in his next two fights, then back to a “toughie”. And oh by the way he should never fight at 140 again. Not with all of the muscle he put on for the Khan fight. 147 should be his new address.

Amir Khan was exposed a little bit vs Chris Algieri. And you know I seldom use that word. But when something happens to a fighter at the top level more than once with similar results that is a glaring weakness. Khan does not like violent pressure and he doesn’t infight. I can remember they talked about Khan vs Ricky Hatton.

Hatton was done before Khan hit the big stage. But if their primes would have coincided Hatton would have mauled him to death. Watch Hatton from 03-05. No way Khan could have stood up to that kind of pressure.

Khan’s problems in my opinion are mental. He has a warped view of himself and it turns lots of people off. I like the kid personally but he needs to humble himself. Everytime he has a subpar performance, he never just says the other guy fought a great fight. I know I have said in the past that most boxers have excuses and they do, but Khan is over the top. He barely wanted to give Algieri credit and he made excuses for actually winning a fight. And yes you are right, Khan has some tough work ahead of him at 147. They have to be very careful with Khan from here on out.

Bread you were right about Cotto’s S and C coach. Cotto looks like he’s 27 again. What do you make of it. Also what did you think about this weekend’s action?

Bread’s Response: Yes Gavin McMillan is the truth. I know when a S&C coach is doing a hell of a job. There are little things in a fighter a trained eye can observe. Cotto looks great.

I know the matchmaking has been good also but let’s remember Cotto was the underdog vs Martinez. Delvin Rodriguez is very hard to stop. And he was equally destructive vs Daniel Geale as GGG. I am impressed.

In the era of same day weigh ins Cotto would probably be a full fledged middleweight. But he’s in the era of day before weigh ins so this allows him to be full of energy and not have to dry out to make weight. Gavin McMillian is brilliant. I don’t know if Cotto can beat Canelo but I will say that Cotto will be extremely well prepared.

As for this weekend’s action. I think Robert Guerrero was lucky to get the decision. Martinez faded towards the end but round 1 counts the same as round 10. At worst Martinez loss by 1 point. No way was that a 97-93 fight. I thought Martinez should have won by 1 point.

I already spoke on Miguel Cotto but I want to address Daniel Geale. I respect all fighters but he quit twice in a row on HBO. I don’t like that and I hope HBO recognizes it. There are too many young fighters in this era who want and need big fights for a guy like Geale to get back on the big show after quitting twice inside of 4 rounds both times. I thought Robert Guerrero was fortunate to get his decision but Guerrero is a gun. He fought through some tough spots and because of it he gave himself a chance to win. Props to Guerrero. Geale quit both times things weren’t going his way early…

I saw on Facebook you are about 30-6 at picking fights this year. That’s awesome. How did you get so good at picking fights? I also saw your list of the best fighters of the last 35 years. I know list are subjective but I think Bernard Hopkins and Larry Holmes should have been on there..

Bread’s Response: Thanks but man I suck this year. In of 3 of the losses I just made bad picks. I should have researched better. I’m ok at picking fights but I don’t think I’m great. There are guys better than me. I honestly believe if you are a historian or so called expert that you should hover around 80% as far as picking the winner of fights. So in every 10 fights you should get 8 correct. By the way the odds makers in boxing specifically are about 80% correct. So if they list someone as the favorite in a fight, take heed. You will be correct about 80% of the time.

You know I thought about it after I made the list that Bhop should be on there, but who do I take off…..?  List are subjective as you sated and Bernard Hopkins could have easily been on there. I also feel bad that Michael Spinks was not on there either. Spinks is one of the most underrated fighters of the modern era.

If we go by the Malignaggi Theory then Miguel Cotto is a PED user. He’s trained by Freddie Roach, he used to fight at a much smaller weight where he took some losses. Now he has scored 3 knockouts in a row. Isn’t that exactly what Manny Pacquiao did? What do you think of Cotto’s new found power? By the way I think Malignaggi is a narcissistic jerk who goes by his won agenda.

Bread’s Response: LMAO at the Malignaggi Theory, you guys are something else. I will say it again. You guys need to contact Paulie on twitter he’s very accessible. I happen to like the guy I just don’t agree with accusing fighters of cheating without proof. So I’m not going to comment on the Malignaggi Theory.

But I have been anticipating Miguel Cotto PED talk. Cotto was thought to be done after suffering KO losses to Antonio Margarito and Manny Pacquiao in 2008 and 2009.  He also loss back to back fights to Floyd Mayweather and Austin Trout. Now at 34 years old he’s knocking middleweights out brutally.

This is definitely an uncommon late career turnaround. And in this era if a fighter is not in a pool of year around drug testing, then the fighter is not above suspicion. But we can’t accuse or assume a fighter is a PED user without more proof....

I happen to think Cotto is not hurting himself to make weight. I think he’s fighting the right guys. And I think Freddie Roach and Gavin McMillan have rejuvenated Miguel. So right now I want to give Cotto full props for a great career turnaround. With another significant victory, Cotto will go from a HOF to an all time great. That being said I would like to see Cotto and Canelo both voluntarily enter the testing pool tomorrow since we all know they are going to fight next……

Send questions to dabreadman25@hotmail.com